Post by Luna on Aug 22, 2012 20:55:44 GMT -5
Blue_Yonder, somewhere in the background, starts wheeling crates of cider off his airship and back toward the refreshments table. Apple, pear, and other flavors now too.
Derpy is wandering past Blue Yonder's refreshment stand, perusing it with surprise and delight.
Dusk has gotten up to stretch during intermission, talking with Mirage and other ponies about. The play is going wonderfully and he's looking forward to the second half.
Blue_Yonder looks over the spread of snacks, satisfied. Somehow he's gone from supplier to distributor tonight, but it's still good for business either way.
Derpy gives two bits to Blue Yonder. "One food, please," she says cherubically.
Blue_Yonder slides Derpy a platter of grapes, cheese, and a chocolate petit-four.
Blue_Yonder asides to Pinkie, "I oughtta get a contract with Sugarcube Corner for these petit-fours. They'd go over great in far-off lands."
Derpy gapes and marvels at the generous portions!! She takes the plate gingerly in her teeth and walks off with it.
Pinkie_Pie oooohs. "I usually don't get a lot of demand for square foods! I kind of stick with the round stuff."
Since Derpy has taken the opportunity to wander during the intermission, Bardigan seems to have followed her lead. However, he looks exceedingly stressed, wandering in straight lines from one point to the other, giving the barest impression of "mingling" that a pony possibly can. He's also muttering to himself and gesturing every so often. Sheesh, arists, you know?
Blue_Yonder makes a mental list of flavors and where to try selling them.
Pinkie_Pie peeks into a glass of cider. How did he corner the catering market for the play so quickly...?
Derpy walks over to Pinkie Pie and says "Helllo!" Unfortunately, her plate of grapes, cheese and petit four falls from her mouth when she does!
Dusk watches Bardigan 'mingling' about as Dusk takes another sip of his drink, hoping there is no problems for the remainder of the play. He walks over to Derpy and Pinkie as well, giving a bow of his head and greeting.
( Mysteriously, all of the food and the plate bounce, as if adae of rubber. Pinkie catches everything neatly on her head, all the food set nicely in place on the dish. "Hello, Derpy! You're doing a great job being so many people!" )
Derpy looks startled. She shakes it off. "Am only one!" she says, forgetting her craft.
Pinkie_Pie shakes her head vigorously, the grapes bouncing. "No, no! You're at least..." she starts lifting hooves one by one, counting off roles, until she has five legs off the ground. "This many ponies tonight!"
Derpy gets disturbed and pushes down the raised hooves, one by one, taking care not to count. She then takes a grape from the plate on Pinkie's head and eats it. "Hello, Duskly!" she greets.
Dusk watches the bouncy plate and smiles, turning back go Derpy too, "Thank you. And Pinkie is right." He doesn't seem to have noticed the hooves. "You're doing great in the play so far. I look forward to seeing more, Lady Derpy!"
Bardigan suddenly appears behind Derpy. "Derpy! Have you seen the rest of the chorus?" he says, eyes darting hither and thither. "If Berry Punch is sneaking cider before the curtain closes, she's getting a piece of my mind! Maybe literally. I can feel a vein about to burst."
Derpy nibbles a piece of cheese and points to Carrot Top, who's mingling with family in the aisles, and then to Skyheart...who...is over there.
Derpy follows Pinkie around and eats food from the plate balanced on her head.
Spike trundles in, rather slowly, his tail dragging behind him. He's wearing a pair of sunglasses to ward off bright light, which seems to be paining him today.
Dusk smiles and nuzzles Mirage as he stands near the refreshments table with Derpy and Pinkie.
Blue_Yonder examines the state of the audience during the intermission, and looks thoughtful. Something to deal with this might be needed. "...Pinkie, I'll be right back. I think I've got just the thing."
Nettleglum is a cold splotch lurking just behind Luna to the left, ready to supply jujubees or junior mints as necessary.
Blue_Yonder sneaks back out the front door for the moment.
Luna twists on the throne, trying to get more comfortable sharing it with the equally royal sized bulk of Celestia's hips. The marble throne groans warningly, but doesn't actually crack before Luna settles down. Nudging her sister with her wing, Luna looks down at the drunk and unconscious Twilight and Spike sticking out from under the throne and asks, "Should we... do aught? Perhaps a pick-me-up to get the foals through the night?"
Nettleglum has embalming fluid at the ready, but perhaps that's superfluous given the situation. ._.
Suddenly, the lights go DIM! Probably because Twilight is still drunk and asleep at her post! "Two minutes to curtain, everypony."
Blue_Yonder wheels another crate in, pushing it with his muzzle. This one has a big stamp in the shape of a bat and a label in Blue's own hoofwriting reading 'Xibalba'. "The jungle lands far to the south have all sorts of intriguing herbs that are said to restore ponies' energy... I got the recipe for this brew from a shaman down there, and I've been looking for an excuse to test it out."
Pinkie_Pie beams, clapping her hooves enthusiastically. "Oooh, experimenting on ponies! Huzzah!"
Derpy finds that when Pinkie caps her hooves, the food on her head bounces all over! She quickly grabs the petit four and runs backstage with it, leaving grapes and cheese behind.
Twilight_Sparkle SNRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Nightshade returns from the back with a cool glass of champagne. Hmm...the lights are dim. Did she come too early?
Celestia perks as her rump is suddenly nudged by her sister's wing. Looking at her drunken mentee and her equally drunken companion, she returns her attention to Luna. "Do whatever you think is best, my dear sister."
Derpy clang -cling- KLONG c.l.u.n.g C=L=E=N=G!! ...all out of sight. With props. And costumes.
Luna beckons Blue Yonder urgently with a hoof. "By all means, sirrah. How effective is this potion? She has a tiny drop of alcohol in her system as well. Should we burn out her toxins first?" she whispers, audible a mere thirty feet away.
Red_Velvet strides in slowly from a side entrance, making her way to the stage. Walking as if she belonged there she simply ascends to the stage area and slips behind the curtain, in full view of the waiting crowd.
Mirage give Dusk a little nuzzle, then noses him back to their seats.
And all goes silent behind the curtain. If everypony has not found their seat, they should do so now. As a little pegasus foal from before flits up holding a sign: ACT II. Let it begin.
The lights are dark now, except for a ray of light on the balcony used by Horizon at the start of the play. With a clip-clop of golden shoes, Derpy, back in her Celestia garb, walks onto the balcony and faces the audience...more or less. She seems a little distracted.
Dusk hears the announcement too and nods back to Mirage. He grabs a couple of snacks and tops off the drinks. "Yes a good idea, my dear." He nuzzles Mirage back and then heads up to our seats.
Blue_Yonder blinks. One of the princesses is beckoning him over? He grabs a bottle of the Xibalba brew - which is thick and icy-gold in color - and flits up to the royal box to deliver it in person. "I haven't tested it myself, Your Highness, but I followed the steps to the best of my ability."
Derpy speaks from her pitched platform, overseeing the audience, and, by extension, all the ponies of Equestria. "My...my childs," she says in an emotional, affected voice.
"I speak in symbol. But O! O, my childs. My precious childs."
Luna glances at the stage. Down at Twilight. At the stage. Down at twilight. Gritting her teeth, she does this yet again. "No time!" Her horn blazes a bright blue in the darkened hall, pumping enough raw magic through both Twilight and Spike to burn the alcohol in their bloodstreams to nothing, along with most fatigue toxins, any dirt and plaque on their teeth, and... well, it's quite a shock. Hurriedly, she grabs the bottle from Blue Yonder in both hooves and leans over Celestia to thrust it at Twilight. "Here! This shall make thee better! The play is continuing!"
Celestia ooohs. It tingles!
Derpy begins to speak in carefully metered poetry:
"If I were true mother, your care I would take.
Your care I would take though my heart it might break.
My heart it might break for to give you my love
That someday may use it to rise high above
That someday my childs take my place.
But not am I true mother."
Nettleglum thinks the portrayal is uncanny. This is /exactly/ what Luna's sister is like. ._. Are they sure the pony in the royal box with her majesty is who she says she is?
Derpy continues wistfully...
"I not am true mother, for missing one link.
That one missing link is the deadliest chink.
The deadliest chink is that never will come
The day when you raise up the moon and the sun
To heat the all darkness of space."
"For not am I true mother."
Blue_Yonder hovers by the royal box, making sure he doesn't block anypony else's view. He's still kind of a bulky pony, for a pegasus.
Spike shudders awake, and tries to sit up, smacking his head on the throne. "Ow! Fwah? What...?" Being suddenly sober and wide-awake is, frankly, jarring and not entirely pleasant!
Derplestia raises her wings and lifts her chiffon-draped head.
"A mother will be by her children outliven
And lives for the pride in all she has given
All that she has given and nevermore has
She withers for children while nurture them as
If they will relay what she race."
"I wish were I true mother."
"My childs, in danger, is I who abide.
Is I who abide at the crash of the tide.
The crash of the tide is a thing you must fear
So not be surprised if a chink should appear
Arresting our heavenly pace."
"O, how I wish true mother."
"My sister and I love you dearly and fast,
So dearly and fast that our love have amassed
Our love have amassed in celestial ball
That govern your hours and nurture you all
And move with foreverly grace."
Pinkie_Pie is no longer in the pose order.
"We love as though were mother."
"But that which abide is not what you should trust.
Do not place a trust in what covered with dust.
For when you are dust, we will weep and will moan,
Will relish our lessons and how we have grown,
But you? There will be not a trace."
Derpy's head falls a bit. "So much for love of mother."
Derpy continues:
"So bask in our love, and give back if you please.
Give back to us please, but not sink to your knees.
Not sink to your knees, for a danger is nigh,
For there may contrive by the night of the sky
( A strangeness in Luna's white face." )
"If see there is danger, do what you are able
Do what you are able to make yourselves stable.
To make yourselves stable is challenging far
But trust in us not; we are not what you are,
...And never have been at our base."
Derplestia takes a deep breath and stares out at her throng. She places a shod hoof on the balcony sill...and lowers it again, moving away. "Good luck, my little ponies.," she says. And turns away, walking out of sight.
It probably doesn't help when the first thing Spike sees is Nettie, gaunt and looming and inches from his face. "Are you... quite recovered?" she asks, in a sepulchral tone that implies the dragon probably already passed away and just hasn't noticed.
Spike's eyes blink and focus on Nettie...which provokes another involuntary shudder before he realizes exactly what he's looking at. "I...I think so, yeah. Did I miss much? And, uh, could you give me a *little* more space?"
Nettleglum shambles back about a quarter of an inch. ._.
Twilight_Sparkle LEAPS to her hooves, giving a loud snort! Her mane and tail have never looked better, cleaned as they are of anything inorganic--she could star in a pony shampoo commercial. Her eyes, however, are wide as saucers. "What the..." She looks around at her surroundings, eyes passing by the stage once before jerking back to it. "Oh my! The play!!" She quickly downs whatever's in the bottle--no one can convey a sense of urgency like Luna can, and ponies have, historically, tended to do whatever she shouts at them to do. She swallows it, gives a head-to-tail shudder, runs four laps around the royal box, rears up...her horn flashes, and Derpy is spotlighted beautifully, just in time to walk offstage. Anyway, the point is, Twilight's awake to do lighting!
Starfire walks out beneath the skies to meet with Horizon. "Are thee prepared to learn this my love?" she asks, smiling to Horizon. "After all, this is unlike any form of channeling magic you have yet known." taking a seat on a hilltop.
Blue_Yonder raises a hoof and squints once the lights suddenly flash to life. Bright!
Twilight_Sparkle's spotlight shimmers, and disperses, breaking up into a thousand stars, which drift translucently about the stage, lighting the actors in an otherworldly nocturnal glow.
Fluttershy swoops down from an upper balcony on soft, silent wings, landing back in her spot. "E-excuse me. I hope I'm not in the way." Whew. She's just in time.
Spike gets slowly to his feet, hoping that perhaps if he shows signs of mobility Nettleglum will stop looking at him the way a vulture might look at a dead squirrel.
Horizon is illuminated by those same stars, waiting on the hilltop. He stands next to Luna, wearing nothing tonight. A long, long silence ensues as he looks at the ground... and then up at the so far moonless sky. "I am ready," he declares. "Let us begin. And start a new era for all of us," he declares with a confident smile. "This is what I was born to do. I feel it in my bones. Tonight will be the night that everything changes."
Luna watches Twilight gallop around and nods in satisfaction. Complete success! There's more twisting in the royal throne, this time so she can winch out a wing to wrap around Celestia's back. Then she grins a lot, which is not quite her usual expression.
Nettleglum flourishes a ragged feather duster in her teeth, a bedraggled fluff of broken plumage that looks like a lightning-singed Dodo, and attempts to dust Spike off and straighten him up. He's in the royal box. His presence here reflects upon Luna, and he's been asleep under the throne.
Staruna stands and walks around Horizon slowly, narrowing her eyes, grinning. "This task will test thee to the most of any take before now, perhaps more than anything you know combined. Absolute focus is required....to sense, to feel, to control....there are many channels magic flows within my love, work them in unison, balance, feel them as individual powers that course through thy body, enhance your thoughts, first, reach out....can you feel the moon, yearning, waiting for your touch?"
Spike tries to shield himself from Nettleglum's dusting with his arms. "Hey! That tickles! You're gonna make me sn...sn..." Too late. He sneezes, and Nettleglum's feather duster looks even more singed than before.
Celestia flaps a wing gently to waft away any rising dust.
Nettleglum glances at the duster. Oh, dear. She abandons that tactic, and consoles herself with the pleasant stench of smoldering feathers. Ahh.
Horizon sets his hooves on the ground, bowing his head as he begins to reach deep inside himself to find the power that Luna uses every night. He cannot help but shudder as he tries to imagine the sheer scope of what he is about to accomplish. Music begins in the background, rolling out a tinkling, calm melody. This is a magical time full of hope, pregnant with anticipation. Twilight's lights are needed more than ever to set the mood of something so momentous... "Individual powers. Sense. Feeling. Control. Intellect... and magic..." His horn glows bright, reaching. The music begins to swell...
Twilight_Sparkle alights a single star up above once again, from which flashes a spotlight, illuminating Horizon as he speaks. The rest of the stage is lit in a deep dark shade of blue.
Lyra is strumming her lyre backstage, and putting a lot into it.
Nightshade watches the scene with a dark mood. "But," she says aloud, looking grim. "The power of the cosmos is for no mere mortal to master."
Blue_Yonder grins, watching the lighting. Seems like his first attempt at potion-crafting worked out all right. Well, so far.
Red_Velvet stands offstage, her mane elegantly done with a bit of red silk ribbon and little else. She smooths her costume with a hoof and prepares to deliver her part as best she can while out there.
Fluttershy munches silently on her snack while Angel sits up, rubbing his eyes with his ears. Seems like somebunny passed out on the snack cart.
Starfiuna closes her eyes, her form highlighted by some offstage lights, a wafting silvery bluish color. "That is it....feel they natural power and force alongside that of the stronger power...ease them together into unison, apart, but as one....." then opens her eyes. "I have severed my touch from the magic, only thee may now feel it in thy body and soul." sitting, smiling warmly as her love shows great promise. "When thy balance is at optimum, reach out...feel the moon and its serene glory, feel how ponies can look upon my moon with love and adoration, peace and calmness." smiling as she watches with feather titillating anticipation, then grins quietly. "Heh, try THAT with my dear sister's orb and you shall be in agony and in need of a medical unicorn to unscorch thine eyes."
Pinkie_Pie beams, and canters as discreetly as Pinkie can over to Nimble. She curtsies, which looks pretty silly without a dress.
Twilight_Sparkle slowly raises a small, glowing orb, behind the stage.
<OOC> Pinkie_Pie is putting her money on the next pose being by Starkistuna.
Spike peers over the railing, watching the show. This seems like a potentially exciting part!
Nightshade remains grim, and quietly she starts to recite something. "
Nightshade says "And the heat of the sun burned away his false wings, and he fell to his doom.."
Nettleglum gently chides Nightshade in a flat tone. "Now is not the time to be reminiscing about family vacations, dear."
Horizon continues to strain and reach, pushing his head up as if trying to nudge the moon into place with his own horn. And as he continues to do his work, the lights fall away until only he is illuminated, and his voice echoes from the depths of his own mind.
"I can feel it beginning. Coursing up through me like a flood. Every artery is awash with power! It expands to fill every crevice and every inch of my being! How can I hope to contain it all? But this is what I wanted! This is who I am! To grasp what could not be held, to cast the spells that no unicorn dared before. I can feel it within, growing, growing...
There's no way to tell which way it's flowing!
No way to know if the danger must be growing!
Such a feat has never been attempted before,
How can I hope to see it through for the one that I adore?
But I must try, I cannot stop this dream
That fights for the capacity of my intellectual stream.
I can't but hope my life is not too short!
To contain the experiences of a million billion lifetimes!
Wretch, are you to let yourself be cleaved in two?
Thou hast sought eternity and now it's found you!
Think and curse and groan you worthless stallion!
Your effort alone is what will raise up this medallion
Of the love that you have claimed to adore."
He continues as the light of the moon begins to peek over the horizon.
"But the moon has a magic all its own...
I can feel it tugging, this power is not what I was shown...
Something else inside, magic or instinct or pride.
It is not what I want to do, or not what *I* would do,
Some other me inside is trying to break through!
But which is the me that I wish to be?
Am I catastrophe inbound,
Was I always doomed to strike the ground,
When at last I crashed and burned to make my memory resound?
It continues to grow and fill,
I can feel it threatening to overspill..."
Spike stifles an inappropriate giggle at the word 'crevice,' which he's decided lately is hilarious.
Nettleglum watches the performance without a change in expression. Horizon was certainly more charming when met in person. More eyerolling, drooling, and such splendid tatters of dismal rags. It's no wonder Luna liked him way back when.
Nightshade is shocked, shocked, that somepony dared to chide her directly. She responds by glaring at Nettleglum and thrusting her head aside in a dismissive gesture, a silent 'harumph!'.
And it's at this point the climax begins to arrive. As the music begins to build, growing more ominous, more screeching strings and blaring horns than tingling anticipation. And another light begins to shine alongside the first in the sky, as Horizon seems frozen in place, unable to stop, unable to keep going...
"Wait... something is wrong. It's too big! No, not too big! Too *many!* I feel it in my head and on my heart! I reached within and without, with mind and magic. Body and soul. I lift with both, but they do not lift each other. I used my magic and thought of Luna, sweet Luna... thought of how *her* moon was not mine, but *the* moon I must lift regardless. *Two* moons! Impossible! But which can I grab and which should I release? I cannot tell... but I must decide... even as they decide for me. Pulling... ripping... tearing... Too... much..." And the rest of the stage is awash with light as two moons suddenly appear in the sky!
Twilight_Sparkle gives the two moons all she's got, too; they glitter and sparkle, dancing around each other like sky kittens.
Horizon collapses on the hilltop, sagging to his belly as if all his life was abruptly torn clean away.
Nettleglum appears not to notice the Nightcamel's harumph.
Luna's own grin has faded. Her wing tightens around Celestia, and the Princess of the Night leans in close to the Princess of the Day, watching looking past the play into her memory rather than at it. Her grimace is faint, but it's tighter than her usual impassive royal mask.
Backstage, some major rumbling is happening, on top of a shift in the music from something sustained and amorphous to something mroe rhymthic. Something...is rolling.
Lunafire is grinning ear to ear. "Yes my love....that's it!" flaring her wings wide. "Prove to all of Equestria there is NONE stronger than thee!!" then looks to Horizon, seeing something is terribly wrong. "Oh no....no no no....you are not using the magics in unison! As ONE love! Keeping them separate has broken the balance...you are not raising just thy moon, but MINE as well!" taking to the air, hovering over the stage, forelegs reaching to the moons. "I can not touch them...I can not break the flow of either magic...two moons is a catastrophe...and if either slip the world is doomed!" landing, lowering her head and wings sadly in dismay.
Pinkie_Pie frowns. Pinkie senses tingling... something REALLY REALLY BIG is about to fall from the sky!
And with that, the music takes a recognizable form, and the curtains spread wider to reveal the entire chorus standing or sitting, with Lyra and the musicians ardently performing, the others standing by in outlandish costume.
o/` "God is playing marbles
With his planets and his stars
Creating havoc through our lives
With his influence on Mars" o/`
Pinkie_Pie's eyes cross as she senses something else, too. Sadness... she looks up at the royal box, concerned. A very deep, aching melancholy that it would take much more than balloons to fix...
And everything begins to cut out once again as the stage goes dark... and Luna vanishes from sight. Everything does, actually, as two great moons are rolled out... one looking placid and normal, the other lit up like fireworks, as crazily and randomly as Twilight can make it... and Horizon comes out from between the two, and joins the song.
It can't be Nettie Pinkie is sensing. Nettie is her usual cheerful font of joy.
This is what the audience hears: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-htKgvLdtTg
"That's why I'm stumbling down the highway
On my boots of steel
I should be rolling down the skyway
On my cosmic wheels..."
Red_Velvet stands off stage, watching the powerful performance, then she glances up to the royal box and places a hoof against her chest to the the uncommon expression on the lunar monarch's face. She decides right then that it is certainly not the night to bother her majesty with a petition after this is all over. No...a few days for the memory to fade again. Then she shall attend nightcourt. But now is not the time, her part has arrived and she rushes out as the curtain parts to stand with Lyra and the rest of the chorus! "Cosmic wheels, Cosmic wheels, Cosmic wheels, Cosmic wheels."
Horizon takes staggering, stomping steps in time with the song, rolling his head about in a disquieting, deliberate way.
"In the present position of the planets
It's impossible for me to say
Just when I'll find my course again
With these boulders in my way."
Derpy appears, her Celestial collar and shoes still on, but her tiara replaced with an outlandishly big tri-cornered hat, and oversized ruby sunglasses. The two 'moons' are giant papier-mache balls on axles, and they serve as the wheels of a giant cart...and Derpy is sitting on top of the normal moon, trying to keep her balance as it slowly rumbles.
Luna's distant, mournful expression becomes a puzzled frown. Cocking her head to one side, she murmurs up to her sister, "We do not remember THIS happening. Do thou?"
Red_Velvet elevates her head, her eyes closed as she adds her voice to the voices of the others as they all sing, "I should be rolling down the skyway, On my cosmic wheels, Instead of stumbling down this highway, On his boots of steel. Cosmic wheels, Cosmic wheels, Cosmic wheels, Cosmic wheels..."
The chorus echoes etherially:
"He should be rolling down the skyway
On his cosmic wheels
Instead of stumbling down this highway
On his boots of steel!"
Celestia ponders for a moment. "I think they may have taken some artistic license with the costumes. But who knows what the style was, back then. We wore some /crazy/ things."
Spike is rapt with attention, utterly sucked in. two moons? This is craziness!
Pinkie_Pie looks considerably more relaxed as immortal melancholy is transformed to bemused puzzlement. She goes back to drinking cider.
Luna grimaces theatrically, noting to Celestia, "Mostly seawater and sweat, on the Night of Two Moons. We suspect our theatrical avatars shall be adorned so shortly."
"That's why I'm stumbling down the highway
On my boots of steel
I should be rolling down the skyway
On my cosmic wheels..."
Celestial wheels is repeated over and over as Horizon staggers about, as if completely unaware of all that's happening. He has a disturbingly neutral look on his face, peering at the two moons with seeming indifference, and drags himself behind the moons as the music fades out.
Blue_Yonder eats a petit-four, entranced by the scene.
Berry Punch takes a little too much pleasure as she stands jauntily and sings: "Cosmic wheeels...Celestial wheels!" Eight times, in fact.
Nightshade is a bit disappointed. She wanted to see cosmic justice! She wanted to see somepony obliterated by the force of occult energies, his last agonized whispers of 'why?' haunting the audience for years. Instead, she gets...a song and dance number. "I suppose it was too mcuh to ask for," she comments.
Nettleglum watches, outwardly as impassive and waxworks as ever. This is, for her, a very moving reaction. How interesting to see the events of Luna's earlier days as monarch.
The great wheels--one of them lit with a psychedelic swirl of ghost green, spirals and flickering diamonds--starts to roll off the stage again as the music fades gradually away.
Red_Velvet bows her head at the conclusion of the chorus and slips offstage, out of the corner of her eye scowling at Berry Punch. The stars were the ones suppose to showboat...not the extras. Perhaps Miss Velvet would have to have a word with Miss Punch outside later...
The curtains close once again... Horizon however returns to the stage, wandering across it, in front of the sealed curtain... he's so far out of his mind that he's broken the fourth wall! "Madness. Madness and chaos," he mutters. "Within? Without? Where is it all happening?" He reaches out, feebly, childishly, towards the audience, and then touches the curtain itself. "Behind here? Wherever that is. I'm here. But I'm out there. And I'm out there, *but* I am... here... not in me. Not in myself. I am nowhere. Nowhere..." He looks up at the royal box... just for the barest moment glancing over the Princesses that he used to know. And then away again, not even reacting to their presence. Or anyone else's. "I remember two, too many... how long ago did it happen? Or is it happening now?" He shakes his head, stumbling back behind the curtain. "I... I need some time to think. I was doing something important. Unless I still am. I just need to remember where I am, to... to find... something..." And he vanishes into silence and stillness.
Pinkie_Pie sighs wistfully. She remembers the first time it happened to her...
Nettleglum has had the occasional out of body experience. With a body like hers, it only stands to reason. ._.
Derpy reappears on stage briefly as the gap between the curtains narrow. She has her sunglasses on her neck and a single cloth tied to her tail, but is otherwise ungarbed. "And so Horizon went mad," she says in her Narrator voice--and then leaps up and flits off stage to quickly get dressed again.
Nightshade's interest grows again. It wasn't a spectacular, Wagnerian climax she was hoping for, but it was a fitting, grim fate for a pony who tried to love above his station. "And so the wheel of time turns, and so the stars of night brightly burn."
Red_Velvet remains backstage, sipping from a bottled water, she need not change her costume. Fortune smiles upon her again as she relaxes between acts.
Twilight_Sparkle does whatever she's supposed to be doing with the lights!
Luna emerges onstage again, wings out of order, mane disheveled, her tiara tilted, nearly ready to fall off. Her fur is frayed as she darts back and forth on the stage. "Disaster! Oh oh oh....the power was to strong for my love's mind....now the imbalance grows, unchecked, out of control!!!" turning to stage left, pausing. "Celestia will never let me hear the end of this...."
Luna extends her wing past Celestia, poking Twilight with the tip of a pinion. "Pssst," she whispers over, "Shake the stage. We had many earthquakes and fires."
Blue_Yonder hovers up with a tray of Xibalban energy drinks for the royal box again. Always pays to get in good with the nobility.
Derplestia is right behind her, too, to make things worse. She flutters in, three out of four shoes on, only one streak of colored hair out of place, the oversized red sunglasses caught in her tail, the tiara crooked but restored. "Luunnaa!!" she shouts. "Need enumberate the problem? Did I not warn? DID I NOT WARN??! Will ~hope~ not hear the end, for if hear the end...then END!" She beats her wings and sags her head. "And not want end. DEARLY not want end."
Spike giggles. "Luna's gonna get in trouble!" he sings quietly, to himself. He's all too familiar with getting in trouble, so there's a certain satisfaction to seeing it happen to an adult.
Twilight_Sparkle startles a little at Luna's touch. "Oh, right, okay!" She causes a stagequake, complete with rumbling sound effects. She also lights several parts of the stage on fire. It's MAGIC fire. It won't actually burn anything. Well, most things.
Carrot Top screeches off-stage at the fires sprouting everywhere, which was not in the script. Ironically, it helps set the mood better anyway.
Celestia leans over to Twilight. "And some flooding, if possible. It helped put out the fires."
Solar_Eclipse seems to have teleported in at some point. He's currently sticking to the wall behind the throne somewhere, head angled back so he can watch the play.
Twilight_Sparkle nods. "Splash!" goes the water.
Starfire snaps her wings up. "Oh, really, tis not the end! Just another minor....thing... to deal with." wolling a wingtip in circles. "And You only warned about it falling, you said nothing about THIS!" pointing both wings up at the twin moons. "Horizon's mind has been destroyed by the out of balance magic, Sister, he seemed so strong...I just don't know what went wrong." folding her wings closed.
Derpy is a bit perturbed by the unexpected flooding, fires, and shaking. She'd been expecting nothing worse than the drum section to get rowdy and some off-key lyre-bowing. But she struggles valiantly to adhere to the script. "Well...but..." She looks up at the sky and the strange light-moons. "Cannot predict what will wrong when magic is stretch-ed strong! Can only predict that ~will~ wrong." She goes to Starfire's Luna and nibbles her neck. "Worst danger? Probably is seas, unless wrong. Shaking will rattle homes, and fall them all, but sea? If two many popular moons, will soak out our land!! How will solve, Luna sister? How will solve??"
Luna sighs heavily as she watches the world on the stage turned upside down. "We are entirely too sober for this experience," she comments out loud. Blue Yonder's entire tray of energy drinks is yanked out of his hands. One bottle is floated each to Twilight, Spike, Celestia, and herself. Luna downs hers in one go, of course, smacking her lips and mumbling, "Curious flavor."
Lunae meeps at the shaking, hovering just off the stage then eeeeping at the magic fire. She did not like fire, it was the lack of heat that prevented her from a real panic. She meeps at the nibble, turning sideways. "Seas...yes, the tires will be overly strong dear sister...but I can not effect the moons...I cut my channel to the magic so my dearest could prove himself...and left no secondary control." looking at the dual moons.
Celestia proceeds to sip slowly from the drink places in front of her. The sisters truly are day and night. (hah). "... How curious," she comments on the taste.
Derpy baps 'Luna' with a wingtip--or is it a pat? Hard to say. "Enough worry over your love! Love is forever, but this is now! He will die! If not now, he will die later. But ponies? Can be kept alive!! Think, Luna. What is best solution? Raise I sun more fasterly? Can you hold down waters at oceanshore? Any facet miss?"
Twilight_Sparkle sips hers too, causing the spotlight to drift a bit each time she does.
Spike sniffs the drink, and tentatively dips the tip of his tongue in. He's being a bit more cautious, this time.
Luna is definitely not the delicate maiden of fine dining and elegant liquor sampling Celestia is, so she tosses the empty bottle into her mouth and chews and swallows that, too. Hey, when she was a filly they were THANKFUL to get glass shards to eat!
Spike watches Luna chew up the bottle, with distinct interest. He's never seen a pony do *that* before. He finds himself wondering if Luna has ever eaten gems.
Solar_Eclipse stares, wide-eyed at the play and eats popcorn. Where the popcorn came from is anypony's guess.
Blue_Yonder offers the freshest popcorn this side of the Jackalope Prairies.
The chorus backstage make the murmuring, mumbling sounds of an angry crowd, and they're getting louder!
Luna completely misinterprets this rumbling. Blue light hurriedly rips open another crate of Blue Yonder's energy drinks down at the refreshment table, and they all float out of the box and around to backstage. Then Luna tilts her head back, opens her mouth, and catches a kernel of popcorn dropped from Solar's bag.
"We have been forsaken!" comes the voice of one Marble Memory. Or, perhaps, an ancestor of his! The costume is simple, mostly Marble has his hair redone. He strolls, businesslike, onto the stage. "See what the princesses have wrought? Nothing but pain and misery! They are little foals with their playthings!"
Blue_Yonder takes a sudden bound backwards from the crate and watches the potions float upward to Luna. U-oh. He hopes that shaman knew what she was doing.
Skyheart follows close behind in a similar old-style outfit. "Is this what we placed you in power for? To squander your power for an arrogant fool who can't understand his limits? We knew you thee be fallible 'princess' but this defies expectation!" The word 'princess' is said with a rather seething tone.
Celestia leans over to plant a short, gentle kiss on Luna's cheek.
Nettleglum's glassy flat eyes narrow. She knows it's only a play, but nopony should speak thus to Luna.
Twilight_Sparkle gives the lighting a bit of a red hue.
Solar_Eclipse skitters down from the wall and sits by his Grandmother and Aunt, still munching on the seemingly endless bag of popcorn.
Sugar_Rush comes on stage, also dressed in peasant's garb. "We gave them our trust! Our faith! We placed our lives in their hooves! And now...this is what it has brought us!"
Luna leans against Celestia heavily, and reaches over the armrest of the throne to fuzzle Solar Eclipse's mane. Act II is rather more serious than Act I. Or it will be until the actors find those energy drinks waiting for them behind the curtains.
Twilight_Sparkle makes the stage-fires flare a bit! *woosh*
Derplestia stands by while the three ponies, steeped in rumor and fear, reprimand her sister and herself. She slams down the hoof she's has raised throughout the onslaught, and slips a little, since the stage is still shaking. "Yes, ~this~ is what has bought." She glares at the pony played by Rush, and at the others, but a bigger glare is saved for her sister. "This is what result in having faith in the immortals. We are kindly, yes. We are friend and generous and benefactory, yes. But that is what we choose to! That is not our only. There ~is~ nothing our only." She snorts at the lot of them. "Ask for justify? Ask for reassure? Cannot do." She snaps her wings shut. "If you chose to have faith in your princesses...was misplaced. You have done poorly to trust us." She taps her sister on the shoulder. "Better flee to the sea, sister. Will be ugly here. If you stop tidal force...I will stem the social overwave."
Red_Velvet steps out on stage and cries, "What of my children!? Our foals! How do you hope to atone for all this!?"
( Lunae looks back to Celestia. "He is already dead! A shell! A mortal of blood and flesh with no mind to reflect who he once was." turning to look upon the ponies who were yelling at them. "Of for Equestria's sake...one little bit of extra moon and thy whine so." making a face and rolling her eyes a bit. "Just....muddle through it like any other disaster...I mean really, a bit of water won't...well, maybe it will, but that's no excuse." then regards the second whiny one. "Who is more the fool, the fool, or the one choosing to follow her?" then looks to Celestia curiously. "We can still kill them for such rude manners and tacky clothes, yes?" half joking. "The sea you say...very well. This I can do. Good hunting My Sister!" )
"They have no intention of atoning! They have betrayed us!" Marble says, standing tall. "Woe to us, those who trusted the-- Wait..." Marble breaks his character. "Was my ancestor like that?" Shaking his head, he falls back in character. "BE away!"
Solar_Eclipse ooohs softly, "I remember this story," he says to his Grandmother and beams a bit. He sort of creeps up a bit, peering over, watching the actors do their thing.
Dusk, his hoof lightly about Mirage, is watching the show rather raptly as if watching truly unfold before us, rather than just a play, letting himself be drawn up into the telling of the story, flourishes and all.
'You have done poorly to trust us'. The idea resonates in Nightshade's mind, kindling past anxieties, stirring up thoughts of woe and thunder. All it took was the variance of two wills, for one voice of two to say 'I cannot!', and then the whole fabric would be torn asunder. This radical notion would echo in the unicorn's heart for quite a while still...and who knows what that will encourage her to do?
Spike mutters, "and then they gave up on alicorns and switched to worshiping dragons instead, bringing them gems and tasty ice cream. The end." to himself, quietly enough that he probably doesn't expect anyone else to hear.
Red_Velvet mock weeps into her hooves, "They care nothing for us! They follow only the whims of the moment! What fools we were!"
Bardigan, behind the curtain, looks ready to leap out and strangle poor Marble for breaking character in such an important scene. But for the sake of the show, he restrains himself like a gentlecolt should.
Sugar_Rush goes over and puts a wing around Red in a comforting way.
Derpy as Celestia glowers, and then her expression softens and becomes more knowing. "Can still kill if we wish, but wish we? Have been a long, long time, since murderous." She laughs a little, as if only joking, perhaps, and then wades through the crowd as they attack her, giving Luna the chance to leave. "What fools we all can be together, my ponies! Let us laugh at our utter foolishness! I ask only this--be kind enough not to use sticks, nor stone, only word. For I might speed the sun along and save us from this follyrock." The lights shift, then...and again, those chorus members not already on stage are shown to the audience.
Twilight_Sparkle finishes her drink, floating the bottle over to Spike.
Spike crunches up and eats the glass, in much the same way Luna did. Not as tasty as gems, but...better than popcorn, certainly. That nice silica tang...
Bonbon and Skyheart step forward in the midst of the rising music to sing a song in which their voices are mostly in unison, but now and then differ by a syllable or two before coming together again... and the rest of the chorus stands by to back them up.
"What has happened here?
On a lark, on a night, we of millions were awake
In the dark, out of spite, out of brilliance and its sake.
Feel our bark! Feel our bite! Feel our anger at the sight
Of a sky, like a drunk, overall embraced by night."
Berry Punch walks forward on three legs, one leg swept up as she sings: "What has happened here?"
Bonbon and Skyheart continue:
"Two Moons! Look above! Now look yonder! To and fro,
Move your head! Doublecheck! Watch the first one's steady glow,
But instead! Crane your neck! Watch the other! Feast your eyes on
What there looms! Tinged with lead, teasing large on the horizon."
o/` Two Moons! What has happened here??
o/` Two Moons! What has happened here??
"Looming craters, fuming craters, as if sockets for a hundred
Thousand eyes, strangely taken, flying blind! Could this possibly be wise?
What if this is the beginning? What if ten or twenty rise?
O creators, fool creators, Princesses that we despise!"
o/` Two Moons! Tell us why! (What has happened here?)
o/` Two Moons! Tell us why! (What has happened here?)
Mirage wonders at how the play has turned out, having expected Horizon to fail and be destroyed by his blind ambition. But to see the princesses portrayed as so callous and self centered... she gives Dusk a sideways look to see his reaction.
Luna has met the rest of the play with delight, or at least deep emotional involvement and hey, that's just as good, right? But now she's fidgeting on the throne, wincing and grimacing, and whispers to Celestia in a downright plaintive tone, "We have never, ever been so contemptuous of the lives and happiness of our ponies. Even as Nightmare Moon we cared with the cruelty of a bad mother. Surely the audience will understand that this is a purely artistic flourish?"
"What will happen if they fall? Will their weight destroy us all?
What will happen if they fall? Will their weight destroy us all?
What will happen if they last? Will they pull their stanchions fast?
And what if they multiply? Will they someday fill the sky?"
Lyra, Carrot Top and Berry Punch stand upright and sing in small but strong voices:
"Will there then be no more sky?
Will there then be no more sky?
Will we live or will we die
In a world with no sky?"
o/` Two Moons! What has happened here??
o/` Two Moons! What has happened here?? ....
And the song continues until it fades from audibility.
Red_Velvet bows her head in mourning, a despondent and heartbroken expression on her face as the song fades to a close.
Spike finishes his energy drink and crunches up that bottle, as well. Unfortunately he chooses to do this right as the song's ending, so the silence after the fadeout is interrupted by the sound of dragon teeth on glass.
Twilight_Sparkle glances over at Luna; she's seated close enough that the whisper is audible to her as well. She frowns a little; at the moment she's focusing on keeping the stage properly illuminated, but that doesn't stop her being concerned for the princess.
Celestia gives Luna's cheek another soft kiss. "I know. But I am also sure that they, knowing you and your actions, know full well the depth of your caring and love."
Derplestia keeps her head up and wings spread all through the song. She seems to be stirred with passion, her eyes on a single spark of magical light...and when it ends, she quietly walks stage left and out of sight.
Nettleglum is still, cadaverous taxidermy behind Luna. Surely nopony could mistake Luna's love for anything but the purest of motives.
Twilight_Sparkle's horn flashes, and the light bathing the stage seems to collect and arrange itself; the crowd fades into darkness, and only Luna remains illuminated, standing alone in the spotlight, losing her religion.
Marble seems frozen on the stage now, as if he's been shocked by some sort of incredible revelation. Suddenly he flails, bursting into tears. "What does it all MEAN?!"
( Lunae flies to far stage left, to the sea prop, landing, raising her wings. "Of things that were never meant to be, Forgive me Horizon, as I halt the sea. Perhaps was foolish to let thee follow thy dream...twould seem Celestia was right this time." rearing up on her hind legs and spreading her wings wide. )
She looks to the water and stiffens. "And now you are gone, lost to me forever, never again to behold thy love now or ever. Ponies run and ponies cry...twould be more merciful to let thee die. Perhaps this is why we are bound to the celestial sky....souls interwoven, you and I. Wiped away in a flash of light...just to prove your love with all your might." spreading her wings thinner, shaking them so it looks like she was stressing under pressure.
With a shudder and a loud gasp. "Oh sister my sister, bring the sun to light, before the seas crush us all beneath their might." She looks to the moons as they move across the upper part of the stage, and thus across the skies. Straining and pushing as dawn nears, the night princess is holding the great waters at bay. "Will this mistake of mine destroy me too? I say....NEIGH!" and pushes back against the 'water'.
With all of her strength she puts into this shove, feeling the powers of the moons fading as her sister's orb arises, she pushes the great wave back to sea, then drops to her hooves, and collapses, exhausted as fatigue sets in.
The musicians have started a new, soothing melody...bringing some much-needed cheer to this tale turned grim. The curtain spread again and they stand in shadow, singing quietly...
Red_Velvet stands on stage with the rest of the chorus cast and lifts her head, looking to the skies as she begins to sing softly and sweetly. "Here comes the sun. Here comes the sun, and I say. It's gonna be alright." She allows a small smile to cross her lips as she continues for the first verse. "Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter. Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here. Here comes the sun. Here comes the sun, and I say. It's all right..."
o/` Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right o/`
Twilight_Sparkle raises the sun behind the stage, bathing red velvet in light befitting her name.
Sun! Sun! Sun! Here it comes!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6tV11acSRk Listen and love. <3
Derplestia is back in the light by now, thanks to Twilight's gradual illumination. She has her eyes closed in contemplation now, and the townsfolk no longer seem to be badgering her. But she is tiring.
Lyra steps forward proudly. "Sun, sun, sun: Here it comes!" she sings quietly.
Marble lifts a hoof in the air, but he looks a little traumatized. "Sun! Sun! Sun! Here it comes!"
Sugar_Rush step forward and sings in a sweet strong voice, o/` Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting. Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear! Here comes the sun! Here comes the sun, and I say, It's all right. It's all right! o/`
Dusk, as Mirage watches, seems quite absorbed in the telling, but doesn't seem to be bothered by the portrayal of the Princesses. Even if it true and not tale, they are ones of such power that trusting or not would not change such whims. If any part would bother him would be that the ponies should be grateful for all the boon the Princesses had given and not turn on such a turn of bad fate. Instead they should deal with the problem and help each other, even if the Princesses were not to. But yes, it's a story. He notices Mirage's curious glance and smiles softly, giving his hoof around her a light squeeze.
Now the sun has fully risen, and the moons are out of sight. Derplestia walks slowly to her sister, her steps very weary, and bends down to nudge her with her muzzle. Her fake horn shimmers with a little flash.
Starfire stirs, lifting her head. "We are not drowned?" looking around as the sun climbs higher. She takes a deep breath and shakes herself off, then rises. "Home dear sister, now that disaster is not at our heels."
Derpy nods softly and walks with 'Luna', not saying a word. She departs the stage once more.
Starfire follows her sister offstage.
The chorus withdraws once more, leaving Horizon again alone.
Marble_Memory is dragged offstage by somepony.
Luna sighs rather heavily, leaning against Celestia and laying her head on the giant white mare's shoulder. Her expression is the usual - regally impassive.
Things go dark and quiet again, until a disturbing, slow shuffling noise is heard. Horizon is dragging himself somewhere. He is in a dark, dimly lit place. It appears to be a study of some kind, perhaps the very place where he studied in the palace alongside his lover the Night. Papers and magical instruments are strewn everywhere. A spotlight follows him as he wanders, his eyes empty and forlorn as he stares at nothing, or perhaps something far, far beyond the reach of anypony.
Pinkie_Pie quietly confers with Spike on the possiblity of getting snapshots of the multiple pony plots up in the royal box. He's got the perfect height level...
( "The moon and the sun. Together they move as one. To think that I could interject. To think that I could become a third wheel! One too many. An extra link in a chain is cut to save the weight. My mind is gone. I cannot see. I see only me. I hear only what I know, and what I wish. Luna, dear Luna... do not be angry. You did no wrong save to indulge a creature like me. I was not strong enough. And now I leave you like a bird in winter, present on this world, but forever away. Would that I was content to gaze and never reach, never reach... but then the time of Luna's love would never have happened, like a fall without summer. All would never be, and though I would never have loved, never would my love be lost." )
( Horizon glances upwards, to where he thinks the Sun might be. He has a shaky, uncertain grin on his face. "And love is what saved them. Their love. The love of sisters... bound by time and duty, and things I couldn't comprehend, but dared to seek out. A love I dared to be shared in. And for all that I loved Luna, their love proved stronger. For before me is Equestria, whole and unbroken. Perhaps my love and her sweet sister of Sun saved them all. Or perhaps my madness brings me this dream of fake sunlight... either way, my tale is done." )
Marble_Memory sits backstage, whimpering quietly to himself.
He puts his forelegs up on a desk, looking over his old calculations. Everything he used to value so highly. "Here I and sorrows sit, torn between my regrets. Here is my throne of sadness. Bid nopony ever come to it. Goodbye Moon, my heart's delight. Goodbye Sun, thou steady voice of reason. Goodbye me, torn asunder and never born. For who can say whether what lives without life had ever truly been? Not I. I know only me, and I am here no longer... I cannot tell whether my world persists. Is this darkness Tartarus already, come to claim a soul of hubris? I am trapped, trapped within myself..."
A piano begins to slowly, ominously roll out a melody. Melancholy and regretful, Horizon begins to sing as he drags himself listlessly about the room, supported by a chorus that stands to one side, looking mournful.
"My body is a cage
That keeps me from dancing with the one I love
But my mind holds the key
I'm standing on a stage
Of fear and self doubt
It's a hollow play
But they'll clap anyway..."
<OOC> Bardigan says, "Here is the music! www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeFezGJF7mA"
Horizon wanders towards a window, looking outside it. No Sun shines to meet his gaze. He's stuck within this little room, peering out and never knowing what's really become of himself.
"I'm living in an age
That calls darkness light
Though my language is dead
Still the shapes fill my head
I'm living in an age
Whose name I don't know
Though the fear keeps me moving
Still my heart beats so slow..."
Luna muses to Celestia again, "We think the playwright may have a crush. He renders so well the doubts and glories of those wonderful fools who love us. We suspect he knows the thoughts from experience." Closing her eyes tightly, she whispers, "My poor, sweet, brilliant Horizon. Thou knew from the start that my sister and I would keep walking and one day thou would fall behind. It happened sooner rather than later, that's all."
"~You're standing next to me... My mind holds the key... My body is a..." And as the music swells to a climax, Horizon suddenly turns about and begins to furiously kick over the tables, scattering his papers everywhere as he goes quiet while the music builds, adding to the madness of the scene. Red light bathes everything, and Horizon takes apart what's left of his mind piece by piece, taking a lit lantern and lighting the room aflame as he staggers, biting himself and ripping papers in two in a fit of rage.
Derpy is somehow snoozing in the audience again, curled up under a seat.
Horizon finishes the rest of the song in a huddled slump. And as the music comes to a close, Horizon glances back up at nothing. There's no light that frames him or makes him stand out. "~Set my body free... free..." he whispers. And then everything winks out once more.
Spike watches wide-eyed. It's hard to say whether it's because he's transfixed by the pony's pain, or if the energy drink is having some unintended effects.
Derpy wakes up suddenly, dashes out from under Seafoam Splash's seat, and hurries up to the stage, fluttering a little. She shakes herself until her Celestia costume is again in place, and then wanders very slowly.
Dusk listens to Horizon's monologue with quite a bit of feeling, and feeling quite impressed with the story writing and acting all as one. He glances briefly towards the royal box before back to watching the play.
Nightshade cannot watch this scene. She stands up abruptly and leaves as Horizon descends into his final madness. No. No no no.
Blue_Yonder meanwhile watches raptly. Watching history acted out on stage is fascinating.
Lunae is walking with her sister along the ridge near the coastal villages, overlooking the damage from the eve before. "It is a good thing you got the Sun up when you did...I could not have held the oceans back for much longer. Despite all that has happened...it is nice to know we have one another's back in all things."
Red_Velvet watches the emotionally charged scene from offstage with a strangely cold expression, it's not deadpan, it's icy and chilling. but after a moment she shakes herself free of the grip of whatever she was thinking of and regains her composure.
( The demeanor of Derplestia is gentle, a testament to her ability to swiftly change moods. The sound of rolling ball bearing accents their conversation--it's meant to be the smooth waves of the ocean. "Is deep truth to this, Luna," she says, pausing to groom her sister's wing. "I know what is fact, here. Fact is? You are ~very~ deep well of love. And yet?" She shakes out the sand in one of her own wings--or is it grit from under the seats? "Your love all was pooled in one place for these years, more and more and more. All pool-ed! Not balance. And that?" She looks up at the sky, and the virtual sun. "No balance, no safety." )
Skyheart stays backstage as well. he looks to the others when he sees Bardigan tear up the place a few scenes ago. "Um... was destroying the set in the script?" He whispers.
"Nah," murmurs Berry Punch, "but you didn't seriously think the set would survive this play, did you?"
Nightshade is totally beside herself right now as she ambles down the theatre hallway. The look in Bardigan's eyes as he played his part...no, she cannot think of it. No no no. It was like that one time when Father- no no no no no no no no no.
( Lunae continues to walk with Celestia on a clever treadmill like thing just below some trim on the stage, so they could actually walk in place. "Balance in all things is true, yes...but blind is the eye of love, when the scales themselves are tilted so." as they walk. "Still, they were good years dear Sister, and I shall never forget them." )
Derpy gets a little off-sync with the treadmill and trips a bit, having to run to catch up. She seems full of vibrancy and vigor. "I am glad you have those memories to rememborize. Luna? I have question for you. ...Can our ponies trust us again, now?" She seems melancholy. "Because I would like...again....to be trusted." It's some of the most lucid speech Derpy's delivered in...in memory. She must have really rehearsed this bit!
Nightshade has trouble pulling herself together as she walks, with a heavy and shaken heart, to the nearest magi-phone, brusquely pushing aside one of the concierge's assistants as she lifts the handset and dials a number. "Hello? Mother? Yes, I'm fine, but...I would like to talk to Father, please. Now."
Starfire looks ahead and walks, having waited for Celestia to catch up. "Our ponies know the risks, they know the dangers....they also know the benefits and the good things within us." closing her eyes as she walks. "If they choose to trust in us, it is their choice to make, for better or for worse." sighing. "This just happened to be one of the slight downturns."
Red_Velvet stands just out of view, knowing that the next part will involve the chorus ponies again. She is simply waiting for their cue.
Derpy is wandering past Blue Yonder's refreshment stand, perusing it with surprise and delight.
Dusk has gotten up to stretch during intermission, talking with Mirage and other ponies about. The play is going wonderfully and he's looking forward to the second half.
Blue_Yonder looks over the spread of snacks, satisfied. Somehow he's gone from supplier to distributor tonight, but it's still good for business either way.
Derpy gives two bits to Blue Yonder. "One food, please," she says cherubically.
Blue_Yonder slides Derpy a platter of grapes, cheese, and a chocolate petit-four.
Blue_Yonder asides to Pinkie, "I oughtta get a contract with Sugarcube Corner for these petit-fours. They'd go over great in far-off lands."
Derpy gapes and marvels at the generous portions!! She takes the plate gingerly in her teeth and walks off with it.
Pinkie_Pie oooohs. "I usually don't get a lot of demand for square foods! I kind of stick with the round stuff."
Since Derpy has taken the opportunity to wander during the intermission, Bardigan seems to have followed her lead. However, he looks exceedingly stressed, wandering in straight lines from one point to the other, giving the barest impression of "mingling" that a pony possibly can. He's also muttering to himself and gesturing every so often. Sheesh, arists, you know?
Blue_Yonder makes a mental list of flavors and where to try selling them.
Pinkie_Pie peeks into a glass of cider. How did he corner the catering market for the play so quickly...?
Derpy walks over to Pinkie Pie and says "Helllo!" Unfortunately, her plate of grapes, cheese and petit four falls from her mouth when she does!
Dusk watches Bardigan 'mingling' about as Dusk takes another sip of his drink, hoping there is no problems for the remainder of the play. He walks over to Derpy and Pinkie as well, giving a bow of his head and greeting.
( Mysteriously, all of the food and the plate bounce, as if adae of rubber. Pinkie catches everything neatly on her head, all the food set nicely in place on the dish. "Hello, Derpy! You're doing a great job being so many people!" )
Derpy looks startled. She shakes it off. "Am only one!" she says, forgetting her craft.
Pinkie_Pie shakes her head vigorously, the grapes bouncing. "No, no! You're at least..." she starts lifting hooves one by one, counting off roles, until she has five legs off the ground. "This many ponies tonight!"
Derpy gets disturbed and pushes down the raised hooves, one by one, taking care not to count. She then takes a grape from the plate on Pinkie's head and eats it. "Hello, Duskly!" she greets.
Dusk watches the bouncy plate and smiles, turning back go Derpy too, "Thank you. And Pinkie is right." He doesn't seem to have noticed the hooves. "You're doing great in the play so far. I look forward to seeing more, Lady Derpy!"
Bardigan suddenly appears behind Derpy. "Derpy! Have you seen the rest of the chorus?" he says, eyes darting hither and thither. "If Berry Punch is sneaking cider before the curtain closes, she's getting a piece of my mind! Maybe literally. I can feel a vein about to burst."
Derpy nibbles a piece of cheese and points to Carrot Top, who's mingling with family in the aisles, and then to Skyheart...who...is over there.
Derpy follows Pinkie around and eats food from the plate balanced on her head.
Spike trundles in, rather slowly, his tail dragging behind him. He's wearing a pair of sunglasses to ward off bright light, which seems to be paining him today.
Dusk smiles and nuzzles Mirage as he stands near the refreshments table with Derpy and Pinkie.
Blue_Yonder examines the state of the audience during the intermission, and looks thoughtful. Something to deal with this might be needed. "...Pinkie, I'll be right back. I think I've got just the thing."
Nettleglum is a cold splotch lurking just behind Luna to the left, ready to supply jujubees or junior mints as necessary.
Blue_Yonder sneaks back out the front door for the moment.
Luna twists on the throne, trying to get more comfortable sharing it with the equally royal sized bulk of Celestia's hips. The marble throne groans warningly, but doesn't actually crack before Luna settles down. Nudging her sister with her wing, Luna looks down at the drunk and unconscious Twilight and Spike sticking out from under the throne and asks, "Should we... do aught? Perhaps a pick-me-up to get the foals through the night?"
Nettleglum has embalming fluid at the ready, but perhaps that's superfluous given the situation. ._.
Suddenly, the lights go DIM! Probably because Twilight is still drunk and asleep at her post! "Two minutes to curtain, everypony."
Blue_Yonder wheels another crate in, pushing it with his muzzle. This one has a big stamp in the shape of a bat and a label in Blue's own hoofwriting reading 'Xibalba'. "The jungle lands far to the south have all sorts of intriguing herbs that are said to restore ponies' energy... I got the recipe for this brew from a shaman down there, and I've been looking for an excuse to test it out."
Pinkie_Pie beams, clapping her hooves enthusiastically. "Oooh, experimenting on ponies! Huzzah!"
Derpy finds that when Pinkie caps her hooves, the food on her head bounces all over! She quickly grabs the petit four and runs backstage with it, leaving grapes and cheese behind.
Twilight_Sparkle SNRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Nightshade returns from the back with a cool glass of champagne. Hmm...the lights are dim. Did she come too early?
Celestia perks as her rump is suddenly nudged by her sister's wing. Looking at her drunken mentee and her equally drunken companion, she returns her attention to Luna. "Do whatever you think is best, my dear sister."
Derpy clang -cling- KLONG c.l.u.n.g C=L=E=N=G!! ...all out of sight. With props. And costumes.
Luna beckons Blue Yonder urgently with a hoof. "By all means, sirrah. How effective is this potion? She has a tiny drop of alcohol in her system as well. Should we burn out her toxins first?" she whispers, audible a mere thirty feet away.
Red_Velvet strides in slowly from a side entrance, making her way to the stage. Walking as if she belonged there she simply ascends to the stage area and slips behind the curtain, in full view of the waiting crowd.
Mirage give Dusk a little nuzzle, then noses him back to their seats.
And all goes silent behind the curtain. If everypony has not found their seat, they should do so now. As a little pegasus foal from before flits up holding a sign: ACT II. Let it begin.
The lights are dark now, except for a ray of light on the balcony used by Horizon at the start of the play. With a clip-clop of golden shoes, Derpy, back in her Celestia garb, walks onto the balcony and faces the audience...more or less. She seems a little distracted.
Dusk hears the announcement too and nods back to Mirage. He grabs a couple of snacks and tops off the drinks. "Yes a good idea, my dear." He nuzzles Mirage back and then heads up to our seats.
Blue_Yonder blinks. One of the princesses is beckoning him over? He grabs a bottle of the Xibalba brew - which is thick and icy-gold in color - and flits up to the royal box to deliver it in person. "I haven't tested it myself, Your Highness, but I followed the steps to the best of my ability."
Derpy speaks from her pitched platform, overseeing the audience, and, by extension, all the ponies of Equestria. "My...my childs," she says in an emotional, affected voice.
"I speak in symbol. But O! O, my childs. My precious childs."
Luna glances at the stage. Down at Twilight. At the stage. Down at twilight. Gritting her teeth, she does this yet again. "No time!" Her horn blazes a bright blue in the darkened hall, pumping enough raw magic through both Twilight and Spike to burn the alcohol in their bloodstreams to nothing, along with most fatigue toxins, any dirt and plaque on their teeth, and... well, it's quite a shock. Hurriedly, she grabs the bottle from Blue Yonder in both hooves and leans over Celestia to thrust it at Twilight. "Here! This shall make thee better! The play is continuing!"
Celestia ooohs. It tingles!
Derpy begins to speak in carefully metered poetry:
"If I were true mother, your care I would take.
Your care I would take though my heart it might break.
My heart it might break for to give you my love
That someday may use it to rise high above
That someday my childs take my place.
But not am I true mother."
Nettleglum thinks the portrayal is uncanny. This is /exactly/ what Luna's sister is like. ._. Are they sure the pony in the royal box with her majesty is who she says she is?
Derpy continues wistfully...
"I not am true mother, for missing one link.
That one missing link is the deadliest chink.
The deadliest chink is that never will come
The day when you raise up the moon and the sun
To heat the all darkness of space."
"For not am I true mother."
Blue_Yonder hovers by the royal box, making sure he doesn't block anypony else's view. He's still kind of a bulky pony, for a pegasus.
Spike shudders awake, and tries to sit up, smacking his head on the throne. "Ow! Fwah? What...?" Being suddenly sober and wide-awake is, frankly, jarring and not entirely pleasant!
Derplestia raises her wings and lifts her chiffon-draped head.
"A mother will be by her children outliven
And lives for the pride in all she has given
All that she has given and nevermore has
She withers for children while nurture them as
If they will relay what she race."
"I wish were I true mother."
"My childs, in danger, is I who abide.
Is I who abide at the crash of the tide.
The crash of the tide is a thing you must fear
So not be surprised if a chink should appear
Arresting our heavenly pace."
"O, how I wish true mother."
"My sister and I love you dearly and fast,
So dearly and fast that our love have amassed
Our love have amassed in celestial ball
That govern your hours and nurture you all
And move with foreverly grace."
Pinkie_Pie is no longer in the pose order.
"We love as though were mother."
"But that which abide is not what you should trust.
Do not place a trust in what covered with dust.
For when you are dust, we will weep and will moan,
Will relish our lessons and how we have grown,
But you? There will be not a trace."
Derpy's head falls a bit. "So much for love of mother."
Derpy continues:
"So bask in our love, and give back if you please.
Give back to us please, but not sink to your knees.
Not sink to your knees, for a danger is nigh,
For there may contrive by the night of the sky
( A strangeness in Luna's white face." )
"If see there is danger, do what you are able
Do what you are able to make yourselves stable.
To make yourselves stable is challenging far
But trust in us not; we are not what you are,
...And never have been at our base."
Derplestia takes a deep breath and stares out at her throng. She places a shod hoof on the balcony sill...and lowers it again, moving away. "Good luck, my little ponies.," she says. And turns away, walking out of sight.
It probably doesn't help when the first thing Spike sees is Nettie, gaunt and looming and inches from his face. "Are you... quite recovered?" she asks, in a sepulchral tone that implies the dragon probably already passed away and just hasn't noticed.
Spike's eyes blink and focus on Nettie...which provokes another involuntary shudder before he realizes exactly what he's looking at. "I...I think so, yeah. Did I miss much? And, uh, could you give me a *little* more space?"
Nettleglum shambles back about a quarter of an inch. ._.
Twilight_Sparkle LEAPS to her hooves, giving a loud snort! Her mane and tail have never looked better, cleaned as they are of anything inorganic--she could star in a pony shampoo commercial. Her eyes, however, are wide as saucers. "What the..." She looks around at her surroundings, eyes passing by the stage once before jerking back to it. "Oh my! The play!!" She quickly downs whatever's in the bottle--no one can convey a sense of urgency like Luna can, and ponies have, historically, tended to do whatever she shouts at them to do. She swallows it, gives a head-to-tail shudder, runs four laps around the royal box, rears up...her horn flashes, and Derpy is spotlighted beautifully, just in time to walk offstage. Anyway, the point is, Twilight's awake to do lighting!
Starfire walks out beneath the skies to meet with Horizon. "Are thee prepared to learn this my love?" she asks, smiling to Horizon. "After all, this is unlike any form of channeling magic you have yet known." taking a seat on a hilltop.
Blue_Yonder raises a hoof and squints once the lights suddenly flash to life. Bright!
Twilight_Sparkle's spotlight shimmers, and disperses, breaking up into a thousand stars, which drift translucently about the stage, lighting the actors in an otherworldly nocturnal glow.
Fluttershy swoops down from an upper balcony on soft, silent wings, landing back in her spot. "E-excuse me. I hope I'm not in the way." Whew. She's just in time.
Spike gets slowly to his feet, hoping that perhaps if he shows signs of mobility Nettleglum will stop looking at him the way a vulture might look at a dead squirrel.
Horizon is illuminated by those same stars, waiting on the hilltop. He stands next to Luna, wearing nothing tonight. A long, long silence ensues as he looks at the ground... and then up at the so far moonless sky. "I am ready," he declares. "Let us begin. And start a new era for all of us," he declares with a confident smile. "This is what I was born to do. I feel it in my bones. Tonight will be the night that everything changes."
Luna watches Twilight gallop around and nods in satisfaction. Complete success! There's more twisting in the royal throne, this time so she can winch out a wing to wrap around Celestia's back. Then she grins a lot, which is not quite her usual expression.
Nettleglum flourishes a ragged feather duster in her teeth, a bedraggled fluff of broken plumage that looks like a lightning-singed Dodo, and attempts to dust Spike off and straighten him up. He's in the royal box. His presence here reflects upon Luna, and he's been asleep under the throne.
Staruna stands and walks around Horizon slowly, narrowing her eyes, grinning. "This task will test thee to the most of any take before now, perhaps more than anything you know combined. Absolute focus is required....to sense, to feel, to control....there are many channels magic flows within my love, work them in unison, balance, feel them as individual powers that course through thy body, enhance your thoughts, first, reach out....can you feel the moon, yearning, waiting for your touch?"
Spike tries to shield himself from Nettleglum's dusting with his arms. "Hey! That tickles! You're gonna make me sn...sn..." Too late. He sneezes, and Nettleglum's feather duster looks even more singed than before.
Celestia flaps a wing gently to waft away any rising dust.
Nettleglum glances at the duster. Oh, dear. She abandons that tactic, and consoles herself with the pleasant stench of smoldering feathers. Ahh.
Horizon sets his hooves on the ground, bowing his head as he begins to reach deep inside himself to find the power that Luna uses every night. He cannot help but shudder as he tries to imagine the sheer scope of what he is about to accomplish. Music begins in the background, rolling out a tinkling, calm melody. This is a magical time full of hope, pregnant with anticipation. Twilight's lights are needed more than ever to set the mood of something so momentous... "Individual powers. Sense. Feeling. Control. Intellect... and magic..." His horn glows bright, reaching. The music begins to swell...
Twilight_Sparkle alights a single star up above once again, from which flashes a spotlight, illuminating Horizon as he speaks. The rest of the stage is lit in a deep dark shade of blue.
Lyra is strumming her lyre backstage, and putting a lot into it.
Nightshade watches the scene with a dark mood. "But," she says aloud, looking grim. "The power of the cosmos is for no mere mortal to master."
Blue_Yonder grins, watching the lighting. Seems like his first attempt at potion-crafting worked out all right. Well, so far.
Red_Velvet stands offstage, her mane elegantly done with a bit of red silk ribbon and little else. She smooths her costume with a hoof and prepares to deliver her part as best she can while out there.
Fluttershy munches silently on her snack while Angel sits up, rubbing his eyes with his ears. Seems like somebunny passed out on the snack cart.
Starfiuna closes her eyes, her form highlighted by some offstage lights, a wafting silvery bluish color. "That is it....feel they natural power and force alongside that of the stronger power...ease them together into unison, apart, but as one....." then opens her eyes. "I have severed my touch from the magic, only thee may now feel it in thy body and soul." sitting, smiling warmly as her love shows great promise. "When thy balance is at optimum, reach out...feel the moon and its serene glory, feel how ponies can look upon my moon with love and adoration, peace and calmness." smiling as she watches with feather titillating anticipation, then grins quietly. "Heh, try THAT with my dear sister's orb and you shall be in agony and in need of a medical unicorn to unscorch thine eyes."
Pinkie_Pie beams, and canters as discreetly as Pinkie can over to Nimble. She curtsies, which looks pretty silly without a dress.
Twilight_Sparkle slowly raises a small, glowing orb, behind the stage.
<OOC> Pinkie_Pie is putting her money on the next pose being by Starkistuna.
Spike peers over the railing, watching the show. This seems like a potentially exciting part!
Nightshade remains grim, and quietly she starts to recite something. "
Nightshade says "And the heat of the sun burned away his false wings, and he fell to his doom.."
Nettleglum gently chides Nightshade in a flat tone. "Now is not the time to be reminiscing about family vacations, dear."
Horizon continues to strain and reach, pushing his head up as if trying to nudge the moon into place with his own horn. And as he continues to do his work, the lights fall away until only he is illuminated, and his voice echoes from the depths of his own mind.
"I can feel it beginning. Coursing up through me like a flood. Every artery is awash with power! It expands to fill every crevice and every inch of my being! How can I hope to contain it all? But this is what I wanted! This is who I am! To grasp what could not be held, to cast the spells that no unicorn dared before. I can feel it within, growing, growing...
There's no way to tell which way it's flowing!
No way to know if the danger must be growing!
Such a feat has never been attempted before,
How can I hope to see it through for the one that I adore?
But I must try, I cannot stop this dream
That fights for the capacity of my intellectual stream.
I can't but hope my life is not too short!
To contain the experiences of a million billion lifetimes!
Wretch, are you to let yourself be cleaved in two?
Thou hast sought eternity and now it's found you!
Think and curse and groan you worthless stallion!
Your effort alone is what will raise up this medallion
Of the love that you have claimed to adore."
He continues as the light of the moon begins to peek over the horizon.
"But the moon has a magic all its own...
I can feel it tugging, this power is not what I was shown...
Something else inside, magic or instinct or pride.
It is not what I want to do, or not what *I* would do,
Some other me inside is trying to break through!
But which is the me that I wish to be?
Am I catastrophe inbound,
Was I always doomed to strike the ground,
When at last I crashed and burned to make my memory resound?
It continues to grow and fill,
I can feel it threatening to overspill..."
Spike stifles an inappropriate giggle at the word 'crevice,' which he's decided lately is hilarious.
Nettleglum watches the performance without a change in expression. Horizon was certainly more charming when met in person. More eyerolling, drooling, and such splendid tatters of dismal rags. It's no wonder Luna liked him way back when.
Nightshade is shocked, shocked, that somepony dared to chide her directly. She responds by glaring at Nettleglum and thrusting her head aside in a dismissive gesture, a silent 'harumph!'.
And it's at this point the climax begins to arrive. As the music begins to build, growing more ominous, more screeching strings and blaring horns than tingling anticipation. And another light begins to shine alongside the first in the sky, as Horizon seems frozen in place, unable to stop, unable to keep going...
"Wait... something is wrong. It's too big! No, not too big! Too *many!* I feel it in my head and on my heart! I reached within and without, with mind and magic. Body and soul. I lift with both, but they do not lift each other. I used my magic and thought of Luna, sweet Luna... thought of how *her* moon was not mine, but *the* moon I must lift regardless. *Two* moons! Impossible! But which can I grab and which should I release? I cannot tell... but I must decide... even as they decide for me. Pulling... ripping... tearing... Too... much..." And the rest of the stage is awash with light as two moons suddenly appear in the sky!
Twilight_Sparkle gives the two moons all she's got, too; they glitter and sparkle, dancing around each other like sky kittens.
Horizon collapses on the hilltop, sagging to his belly as if all his life was abruptly torn clean away.
Nettleglum appears not to notice the Nightcamel's harumph.
Luna's own grin has faded. Her wing tightens around Celestia, and the Princess of the Night leans in close to the Princess of the Day, watching looking past the play into her memory rather than at it. Her grimace is faint, but it's tighter than her usual impassive royal mask.
Backstage, some major rumbling is happening, on top of a shift in the music from something sustained and amorphous to something mroe rhymthic. Something...is rolling.
Lunafire is grinning ear to ear. "Yes my love....that's it!" flaring her wings wide. "Prove to all of Equestria there is NONE stronger than thee!!" then looks to Horizon, seeing something is terribly wrong. "Oh no....no no no....you are not using the magics in unison! As ONE love! Keeping them separate has broken the balance...you are not raising just thy moon, but MINE as well!" taking to the air, hovering over the stage, forelegs reaching to the moons. "I can not touch them...I can not break the flow of either magic...two moons is a catastrophe...and if either slip the world is doomed!" landing, lowering her head and wings sadly in dismay.
Pinkie_Pie frowns. Pinkie senses tingling... something REALLY REALLY BIG is about to fall from the sky!
And with that, the music takes a recognizable form, and the curtains spread wider to reveal the entire chorus standing or sitting, with Lyra and the musicians ardently performing, the others standing by in outlandish costume.
o/` "God is playing marbles
With his planets and his stars
Creating havoc through our lives
With his influence on Mars" o/`
Pinkie_Pie's eyes cross as she senses something else, too. Sadness... she looks up at the royal box, concerned. A very deep, aching melancholy that it would take much more than balloons to fix...
And everything begins to cut out once again as the stage goes dark... and Luna vanishes from sight. Everything does, actually, as two great moons are rolled out... one looking placid and normal, the other lit up like fireworks, as crazily and randomly as Twilight can make it... and Horizon comes out from between the two, and joins the song.
It can't be Nettie Pinkie is sensing. Nettie is her usual cheerful font of joy.
This is what the audience hears: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-htKgvLdtTg
"That's why I'm stumbling down the highway
On my boots of steel
I should be rolling down the skyway
On my cosmic wheels..."
Red_Velvet stands off stage, watching the powerful performance, then she glances up to the royal box and places a hoof against her chest to the the uncommon expression on the lunar monarch's face. She decides right then that it is certainly not the night to bother her majesty with a petition after this is all over. No...a few days for the memory to fade again. Then she shall attend nightcourt. But now is not the time, her part has arrived and she rushes out as the curtain parts to stand with Lyra and the rest of the chorus! "Cosmic wheels, Cosmic wheels, Cosmic wheels, Cosmic wheels."
Horizon takes staggering, stomping steps in time with the song, rolling his head about in a disquieting, deliberate way.
"In the present position of the planets
It's impossible for me to say
Just when I'll find my course again
With these boulders in my way."
Derpy appears, her Celestial collar and shoes still on, but her tiara replaced with an outlandishly big tri-cornered hat, and oversized ruby sunglasses. The two 'moons' are giant papier-mache balls on axles, and they serve as the wheels of a giant cart...and Derpy is sitting on top of the normal moon, trying to keep her balance as it slowly rumbles.
Luna's distant, mournful expression becomes a puzzled frown. Cocking her head to one side, she murmurs up to her sister, "We do not remember THIS happening. Do thou?"
Red_Velvet elevates her head, her eyes closed as she adds her voice to the voices of the others as they all sing, "I should be rolling down the skyway, On my cosmic wheels, Instead of stumbling down this highway, On his boots of steel. Cosmic wheels, Cosmic wheels, Cosmic wheels, Cosmic wheels..."
The chorus echoes etherially:
"He should be rolling down the skyway
On his cosmic wheels
Instead of stumbling down this highway
On his boots of steel!"
Celestia ponders for a moment. "I think they may have taken some artistic license with the costumes. But who knows what the style was, back then. We wore some /crazy/ things."
Spike is rapt with attention, utterly sucked in. two moons? This is craziness!
Pinkie_Pie looks considerably more relaxed as immortal melancholy is transformed to bemused puzzlement. She goes back to drinking cider.
Luna grimaces theatrically, noting to Celestia, "Mostly seawater and sweat, on the Night of Two Moons. We suspect our theatrical avatars shall be adorned so shortly."
"That's why I'm stumbling down the highway
On my boots of steel
I should be rolling down the skyway
On my cosmic wheels..."
Celestial wheels is repeated over and over as Horizon staggers about, as if completely unaware of all that's happening. He has a disturbingly neutral look on his face, peering at the two moons with seeming indifference, and drags himself behind the moons as the music fades out.
Blue_Yonder eats a petit-four, entranced by the scene.
Berry Punch takes a little too much pleasure as she stands jauntily and sings: "Cosmic wheeels...Celestial wheels!" Eight times, in fact.
Nightshade is a bit disappointed. She wanted to see cosmic justice! She wanted to see somepony obliterated by the force of occult energies, his last agonized whispers of 'why?' haunting the audience for years. Instead, she gets...a song and dance number. "I suppose it was too mcuh to ask for," she comments.
Nettleglum watches, outwardly as impassive and waxworks as ever. This is, for her, a very moving reaction. How interesting to see the events of Luna's earlier days as monarch.
The great wheels--one of them lit with a psychedelic swirl of ghost green, spirals and flickering diamonds--starts to roll off the stage again as the music fades gradually away.
Red_Velvet bows her head at the conclusion of the chorus and slips offstage, out of the corner of her eye scowling at Berry Punch. The stars were the ones suppose to showboat...not the extras. Perhaps Miss Velvet would have to have a word with Miss Punch outside later...
The curtains close once again... Horizon however returns to the stage, wandering across it, in front of the sealed curtain... he's so far out of his mind that he's broken the fourth wall! "Madness. Madness and chaos," he mutters. "Within? Without? Where is it all happening?" He reaches out, feebly, childishly, towards the audience, and then touches the curtain itself. "Behind here? Wherever that is. I'm here. But I'm out there. And I'm out there, *but* I am... here... not in me. Not in myself. I am nowhere. Nowhere..." He looks up at the royal box... just for the barest moment glancing over the Princesses that he used to know. And then away again, not even reacting to their presence. Or anyone else's. "I remember two, too many... how long ago did it happen? Or is it happening now?" He shakes his head, stumbling back behind the curtain. "I... I need some time to think. I was doing something important. Unless I still am. I just need to remember where I am, to... to find... something..." And he vanishes into silence and stillness.
Pinkie_Pie sighs wistfully. She remembers the first time it happened to her...
Nettleglum has had the occasional out of body experience. With a body like hers, it only stands to reason. ._.
Derpy reappears on stage briefly as the gap between the curtains narrow. She has her sunglasses on her neck and a single cloth tied to her tail, but is otherwise ungarbed. "And so Horizon went mad," she says in her Narrator voice--and then leaps up and flits off stage to quickly get dressed again.
Nightshade's interest grows again. It wasn't a spectacular, Wagnerian climax she was hoping for, but it was a fitting, grim fate for a pony who tried to love above his station. "And so the wheel of time turns, and so the stars of night brightly burn."
Red_Velvet remains backstage, sipping from a bottled water, she need not change her costume. Fortune smiles upon her again as she relaxes between acts.
Twilight_Sparkle does whatever she's supposed to be doing with the lights!
Luna emerges onstage again, wings out of order, mane disheveled, her tiara tilted, nearly ready to fall off. Her fur is frayed as she darts back and forth on the stage. "Disaster! Oh oh oh....the power was to strong for my love's mind....now the imbalance grows, unchecked, out of control!!!" turning to stage left, pausing. "Celestia will never let me hear the end of this...."
Luna extends her wing past Celestia, poking Twilight with the tip of a pinion. "Pssst," she whispers over, "Shake the stage. We had many earthquakes and fires."
Blue_Yonder hovers up with a tray of Xibalban energy drinks for the royal box again. Always pays to get in good with the nobility.
Derplestia is right behind her, too, to make things worse. She flutters in, three out of four shoes on, only one streak of colored hair out of place, the oversized red sunglasses caught in her tail, the tiara crooked but restored. "Luunnaa!!" she shouts. "Need enumberate the problem? Did I not warn? DID I NOT WARN??! Will ~hope~ not hear the end, for if hear the end...then END!" She beats her wings and sags her head. "And not want end. DEARLY not want end."
Spike giggles. "Luna's gonna get in trouble!" he sings quietly, to himself. He's all too familiar with getting in trouble, so there's a certain satisfaction to seeing it happen to an adult.
Twilight_Sparkle startles a little at Luna's touch. "Oh, right, okay!" She causes a stagequake, complete with rumbling sound effects. She also lights several parts of the stage on fire. It's MAGIC fire. It won't actually burn anything. Well, most things.
Carrot Top screeches off-stage at the fires sprouting everywhere, which was not in the script. Ironically, it helps set the mood better anyway.
Celestia leans over to Twilight. "And some flooding, if possible. It helped put out the fires."
Solar_Eclipse seems to have teleported in at some point. He's currently sticking to the wall behind the throne somewhere, head angled back so he can watch the play.
Twilight_Sparkle nods. "Splash!" goes the water.
Starfire snaps her wings up. "Oh, really, tis not the end! Just another minor....thing... to deal with." wolling a wingtip in circles. "And You only warned about it falling, you said nothing about THIS!" pointing both wings up at the twin moons. "Horizon's mind has been destroyed by the out of balance magic, Sister, he seemed so strong...I just don't know what went wrong." folding her wings closed.
Derpy is a bit perturbed by the unexpected flooding, fires, and shaking. She'd been expecting nothing worse than the drum section to get rowdy and some off-key lyre-bowing. But she struggles valiantly to adhere to the script. "Well...but..." She looks up at the sky and the strange light-moons. "Cannot predict what will wrong when magic is stretch-ed strong! Can only predict that ~will~ wrong." She goes to Starfire's Luna and nibbles her neck. "Worst danger? Probably is seas, unless wrong. Shaking will rattle homes, and fall them all, but sea? If two many popular moons, will soak out our land!! How will solve, Luna sister? How will solve??"
Luna sighs heavily as she watches the world on the stage turned upside down. "We are entirely too sober for this experience," she comments out loud. Blue Yonder's entire tray of energy drinks is yanked out of his hands. One bottle is floated each to Twilight, Spike, Celestia, and herself. Luna downs hers in one go, of course, smacking her lips and mumbling, "Curious flavor."
Lunae meeps at the shaking, hovering just off the stage then eeeeping at the magic fire. She did not like fire, it was the lack of heat that prevented her from a real panic. She meeps at the nibble, turning sideways. "Seas...yes, the tires will be overly strong dear sister...but I can not effect the moons...I cut my channel to the magic so my dearest could prove himself...and left no secondary control." looking at the dual moons.
Celestia proceeds to sip slowly from the drink places in front of her. The sisters truly are day and night. (hah). "... How curious," she comments on the taste.
Derpy baps 'Luna' with a wingtip--or is it a pat? Hard to say. "Enough worry over your love! Love is forever, but this is now! He will die! If not now, he will die later. But ponies? Can be kept alive!! Think, Luna. What is best solution? Raise I sun more fasterly? Can you hold down waters at oceanshore? Any facet miss?"
Twilight_Sparkle sips hers too, causing the spotlight to drift a bit each time she does.
Spike sniffs the drink, and tentatively dips the tip of his tongue in. He's being a bit more cautious, this time.
Luna is definitely not the delicate maiden of fine dining and elegant liquor sampling Celestia is, so she tosses the empty bottle into her mouth and chews and swallows that, too. Hey, when she was a filly they were THANKFUL to get glass shards to eat!
Spike watches Luna chew up the bottle, with distinct interest. He's never seen a pony do *that* before. He finds himself wondering if Luna has ever eaten gems.
Solar_Eclipse stares, wide-eyed at the play and eats popcorn. Where the popcorn came from is anypony's guess.
Blue_Yonder offers the freshest popcorn this side of the Jackalope Prairies.
The chorus backstage make the murmuring, mumbling sounds of an angry crowd, and they're getting louder!
Luna completely misinterprets this rumbling. Blue light hurriedly rips open another crate of Blue Yonder's energy drinks down at the refreshment table, and they all float out of the box and around to backstage. Then Luna tilts her head back, opens her mouth, and catches a kernel of popcorn dropped from Solar's bag.
"We have been forsaken!" comes the voice of one Marble Memory. Or, perhaps, an ancestor of his! The costume is simple, mostly Marble has his hair redone. He strolls, businesslike, onto the stage. "See what the princesses have wrought? Nothing but pain and misery! They are little foals with their playthings!"
Blue_Yonder takes a sudden bound backwards from the crate and watches the potions float upward to Luna. U-oh. He hopes that shaman knew what she was doing.
Skyheart follows close behind in a similar old-style outfit. "Is this what we placed you in power for? To squander your power for an arrogant fool who can't understand his limits? We knew you thee be fallible 'princess' but this defies expectation!" The word 'princess' is said with a rather seething tone.
Celestia leans over to plant a short, gentle kiss on Luna's cheek.
Nettleglum's glassy flat eyes narrow. She knows it's only a play, but nopony should speak thus to Luna.
Twilight_Sparkle gives the lighting a bit of a red hue.
Solar_Eclipse skitters down from the wall and sits by his Grandmother and Aunt, still munching on the seemingly endless bag of popcorn.
Sugar_Rush comes on stage, also dressed in peasant's garb. "We gave them our trust! Our faith! We placed our lives in their hooves! And now...this is what it has brought us!"
Luna leans against Celestia heavily, and reaches over the armrest of the throne to fuzzle Solar Eclipse's mane. Act II is rather more serious than Act I. Or it will be until the actors find those energy drinks waiting for them behind the curtains.
Twilight_Sparkle makes the stage-fires flare a bit! *woosh*
Derplestia stands by while the three ponies, steeped in rumor and fear, reprimand her sister and herself. She slams down the hoof she's has raised throughout the onslaught, and slips a little, since the stage is still shaking. "Yes, ~this~ is what has bought." She glares at the pony played by Rush, and at the others, but a bigger glare is saved for her sister. "This is what result in having faith in the immortals. We are kindly, yes. We are friend and generous and benefactory, yes. But that is what we choose to! That is not our only. There ~is~ nothing our only." She snorts at the lot of them. "Ask for justify? Ask for reassure? Cannot do." She snaps her wings shut. "If you chose to have faith in your princesses...was misplaced. You have done poorly to trust us." She taps her sister on the shoulder. "Better flee to the sea, sister. Will be ugly here. If you stop tidal force...I will stem the social overwave."
Red_Velvet steps out on stage and cries, "What of my children!? Our foals! How do you hope to atone for all this!?"
( Lunae looks back to Celestia. "He is already dead! A shell! A mortal of blood and flesh with no mind to reflect who he once was." turning to look upon the ponies who were yelling at them. "Of for Equestria's sake...one little bit of extra moon and thy whine so." making a face and rolling her eyes a bit. "Just....muddle through it like any other disaster...I mean really, a bit of water won't...well, maybe it will, but that's no excuse." then regards the second whiny one. "Who is more the fool, the fool, or the one choosing to follow her?" then looks to Celestia curiously. "We can still kill them for such rude manners and tacky clothes, yes?" half joking. "The sea you say...very well. This I can do. Good hunting My Sister!" )
"They have no intention of atoning! They have betrayed us!" Marble says, standing tall. "Woe to us, those who trusted the-- Wait..." Marble breaks his character. "Was my ancestor like that?" Shaking his head, he falls back in character. "BE away!"
Solar_Eclipse ooohs softly, "I remember this story," he says to his Grandmother and beams a bit. He sort of creeps up a bit, peering over, watching the actors do their thing.
Dusk, his hoof lightly about Mirage, is watching the show rather raptly as if watching truly unfold before us, rather than just a play, letting himself be drawn up into the telling of the story, flourishes and all.
'You have done poorly to trust us'. The idea resonates in Nightshade's mind, kindling past anxieties, stirring up thoughts of woe and thunder. All it took was the variance of two wills, for one voice of two to say 'I cannot!', and then the whole fabric would be torn asunder. This radical notion would echo in the unicorn's heart for quite a while still...and who knows what that will encourage her to do?
Spike mutters, "and then they gave up on alicorns and switched to worshiping dragons instead, bringing them gems and tasty ice cream. The end." to himself, quietly enough that he probably doesn't expect anyone else to hear.
Red_Velvet mock weeps into her hooves, "They care nothing for us! They follow only the whims of the moment! What fools we were!"
Bardigan, behind the curtain, looks ready to leap out and strangle poor Marble for breaking character in such an important scene. But for the sake of the show, he restrains himself like a gentlecolt should.
Sugar_Rush goes over and puts a wing around Red in a comforting way.
Derpy as Celestia glowers, and then her expression softens and becomes more knowing. "Can still kill if we wish, but wish we? Have been a long, long time, since murderous." She laughs a little, as if only joking, perhaps, and then wades through the crowd as they attack her, giving Luna the chance to leave. "What fools we all can be together, my ponies! Let us laugh at our utter foolishness! I ask only this--be kind enough not to use sticks, nor stone, only word. For I might speed the sun along and save us from this follyrock." The lights shift, then...and again, those chorus members not already on stage are shown to the audience.
Twilight_Sparkle finishes her drink, floating the bottle over to Spike.
Spike crunches up and eats the glass, in much the same way Luna did. Not as tasty as gems, but...better than popcorn, certainly. That nice silica tang...
Bonbon and Skyheart step forward in the midst of the rising music to sing a song in which their voices are mostly in unison, but now and then differ by a syllable or two before coming together again... and the rest of the chorus stands by to back them up.
"What has happened here?
On a lark, on a night, we of millions were awake
In the dark, out of spite, out of brilliance and its sake.
Feel our bark! Feel our bite! Feel our anger at the sight
Of a sky, like a drunk, overall embraced by night."
Berry Punch walks forward on three legs, one leg swept up as she sings: "What has happened here?"
Bonbon and Skyheart continue:
"Two Moons! Look above! Now look yonder! To and fro,
Move your head! Doublecheck! Watch the first one's steady glow,
But instead! Crane your neck! Watch the other! Feast your eyes on
What there looms! Tinged with lead, teasing large on the horizon."
o/` Two Moons! What has happened here??
o/` Two Moons! What has happened here??
"Looming craters, fuming craters, as if sockets for a hundred
Thousand eyes, strangely taken, flying blind! Could this possibly be wise?
What if this is the beginning? What if ten or twenty rise?
O creators, fool creators, Princesses that we despise!"
o/` Two Moons! Tell us why! (What has happened here?)
o/` Two Moons! Tell us why! (What has happened here?)
Mirage wonders at how the play has turned out, having expected Horizon to fail and be destroyed by his blind ambition. But to see the princesses portrayed as so callous and self centered... she gives Dusk a sideways look to see his reaction.
Luna has met the rest of the play with delight, or at least deep emotional involvement and hey, that's just as good, right? But now she's fidgeting on the throne, wincing and grimacing, and whispers to Celestia in a downright plaintive tone, "We have never, ever been so contemptuous of the lives and happiness of our ponies. Even as Nightmare Moon we cared with the cruelty of a bad mother. Surely the audience will understand that this is a purely artistic flourish?"
"What will happen if they fall? Will their weight destroy us all?
What will happen if they fall? Will their weight destroy us all?
What will happen if they last? Will they pull their stanchions fast?
And what if they multiply? Will they someday fill the sky?"
Lyra, Carrot Top and Berry Punch stand upright and sing in small but strong voices:
"Will there then be no more sky?
Will there then be no more sky?
Will we live or will we die
In a world with no sky?"
o/` Two Moons! What has happened here??
o/` Two Moons! What has happened here?? ....
And the song continues until it fades from audibility.
Red_Velvet bows her head in mourning, a despondent and heartbroken expression on her face as the song fades to a close.
Spike finishes his energy drink and crunches up that bottle, as well. Unfortunately he chooses to do this right as the song's ending, so the silence after the fadeout is interrupted by the sound of dragon teeth on glass.
Twilight_Sparkle glances over at Luna; she's seated close enough that the whisper is audible to her as well. She frowns a little; at the moment she's focusing on keeping the stage properly illuminated, but that doesn't stop her being concerned for the princess.
Celestia gives Luna's cheek another soft kiss. "I know. But I am also sure that they, knowing you and your actions, know full well the depth of your caring and love."
Derplestia keeps her head up and wings spread all through the song. She seems to be stirred with passion, her eyes on a single spark of magical light...and when it ends, she quietly walks stage left and out of sight.
Nettleglum is still, cadaverous taxidermy behind Luna. Surely nopony could mistake Luna's love for anything but the purest of motives.
Twilight_Sparkle's horn flashes, and the light bathing the stage seems to collect and arrange itself; the crowd fades into darkness, and only Luna remains illuminated, standing alone in the spotlight, losing her religion.
Marble seems frozen on the stage now, as if he's been shocked by some sort of incredible revelation. Suddenly he flails, bursting into tears. "What does it all MEAN?!"
( Lunae flies to far stage left, to the sea prop, landing, raising her wings. "Of things that were never meant to be, Forgive me Horizon, as I halt the sea. Perhaps was foolish to let thee follow thy dream...twould seem Celestia was right this time." rearing up on her hind legs and spreading her wings wide. )
She looks to the water and stiffens. "And now you are gone, lost to me forever, never again to behold thy love now or ever. Ponies run and ponies cry...twould be more merciful to let thee die. Perhaps this is why we are bound to the celestial sky....souls interwoven, you and I. Wiped away in a flash of light...just to prove your love with all your might." spreading her wings thinner, shaking them so it looks like she was stressing under pressure.
With a shudder and a loud gasp. "Oh sister my sister, bring the sun to light, before the seas crush us all beneath their might." She looks to the moons as they move across the upper part of the stage, and thus across the skies. Straining and pushing as dawn nears, the night princess is holding the great waters at bay. "Will this mistake of mine destroy me too? I say....NEIGH!" and pushes back against the 'water'.
With all of her strength she puts into this shove, feeling the powers of the moons fading as her sister's orb arises, she pushes the great wave back to sea, then drops to her hooves, and collapses, exhausted as fatigue sets in.
The musicians have started a new, soothing melody...bringing some much-needed cheer to this tale turned grim. The curtain spread again and they stand in shadow, singing quietly...
Red_Velvet stands on stage with the rest of the chorus cast and lifts her head, looking to the skies as she begins to sing softly and sweetly. "Here comes the sun. Here comes the sun, and I say. It's gonna be alright." She allows a small smile to cross her lips as she continues for the first verse. "Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter. Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here. Here comes the sun. Here comes the sun, and I say. It's all right..."
o/` Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right o/`
Twilight_Sparkle raises the sun behind the stage, bathing red velvet in light befitting her name.
Sun! Sun! Sun! Here it comes!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6tV11acSRk Listen and love. <3
Derplestia is back in the light by now, thanks to Twilight's gradual illumination. She has her eyes closed in contemplation now, and the townsfolk no longer seem to be badgering her. But she is tiring.
Lyra steps forward proudly. "Sun, sun, sun: Here it comes!" she sings quietly.
Marble lifts a hoof in the air, but he looks a little traumatized. "Sun! Sun! Sun! Here it comes!"
Sugar_Rush step forward and sings in a sweet strong voice, o/` Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting. Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear! Here comes the sun! Here comes the sun, and I say, It's all right. It's all right! o/`
Dusk, as Mirage watches, seems quite absorbed in the telling, but doesn't seem to be bothered by the portrayal of the Princesses. Even if it true and not tale, they are ones of such power that trusting or not would not change such whims. If any part would bother him would be that the ponies should be grateful for all the boon the Princesses had given and not turn on such a turn of bad fate. Instead they should deal with the problem and help each other, even if the Princesses were not to. But yes, it's a story. He notices Mirage's curious glance and smiles softly, giving his hoof around her a light squeeze.
Now the sun has fully risen, and the moons are out of sight. Derplestia walks slowly to her sister, her steps very weary, and bends down to nudge her with her muzzle. Her fake horn shimmers with a little flash.
Starfire stirs, lifting her head. "We are not drowned?" looking around as the sun climbs higher. She takes a deep breath and shakes herself off, then rises. "Home dear sister, now that disaster is not at our heels."
Derpy nods softly and walks with 'Luna', not saying a word. She departs the stage once more.
Starfire follows her sister offstage.
The chorus withdraws once more, leaving Horizon again alone.
Marble_Memory is dragged offstage by somepony.
Luna sighs rather heavily, leaning against Celestia and laying her head on the giant white mare's shoulder. Her expression is the usual - regally impassive.
Things go dark and quiet again, until a disturbing, slow shuffling noise is heard. Horizon is dragging himself somewhere. He is in a dark, dimly lit place. It appears to be a study of some kind, perhaps the very place where he studied in the palace alongside his lover the Night. Papers and magical instruments are strewn everywhere. A spotlight follows him as he wanders, his eyes empty and forlorn as he stares at nothing, or perhaps something far, far beyond the reach of anypony.
Pinkie_Pie quietly confers with Spike on the possiblity of getting snapshots of the multiple pony plots up in the royal box. He's got the perfect height level...
( "The moon and the sun. Together they move as one. To think that I could interject. To think that I could become a third wheel! One too many. An extra link in a chain is cut to save the weight. My mind is gone. I cannot see. I see only me. I hear only what I know, and what I wish. Luna, dear Luna... do not be angry. You did no wrong save to indulge a creature like me. I was not strong enough. And now I leave you like a bird in winter, present on this world, but forever away. Would that I was content to gaze and never reach, never reach... but then the time of Luna's love would never have happened, like a fall without summer. All would never be, and though I would never have loved, never would my love be lost." )
( Horizon glances upwards, to where he thinks the Sun might be. He has a shaky, uncertain grin on his face. "And love is what saved them. Their love. The love of sisters... bound by time and duty, and things I couldn't comprehend, but dared to seek out. A love I dared to be shared in. And for all that I loved Luna, their love proved stronger. For before me is Equestria, whole and unbroken. Perhaps my love and her sweet sister of Sun saved them all. Or perhaps my madness brings me this dream of fake sunlight... either way, my tale is done." )
Marble_Memory sits backstage, whimpering quietly to himself.
He puts his forelegs up on a desk, looking over his old calculations. Everything he used to value so highly. "Here I and sorrows sit, torn between my regrets. Here is my throne of sadness. Bid nopony ever come to it. Goodbye Moon, my heart's delight. Goodbye Sun, thou steady voice of reason. Goodbye me, torn asunder and never born. For who can say whether what lives without life had ever truly been? Not I. I know only me, and I am here no longer... I cannot tell whether my world persists. Is this darkness Tartarus already, come to claim a soul of hubris? I am trapped, trapped within myself..."
A piano begins to slowly, ominously roll out a melody. Melancholy and regretful, Horizon begins to sing as he drags himself listlessly about the room, supported by a chorus that stands to one side, looking mournful.
"My body is a cage
That keeps me from dancing with the one I love
But my mind holds the key
I'm standing on a stage
Of fear and self doubt
It's a hollow play
But they'll clap anyway..."
<OOC> Bardigan says, "Here is the music! www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeFezGJF7mA"
Horizon wanders towards a window, looking outside it. No Sun shines to meet his gaze. He's stuck within this little room, peering out and never knowing what's really become of himself.
"I'm living in an age
That calls darkness light
Though my language is dead
Still the shapes fill my head
I'm living in an age
Whose name I don't know
Though the fear keeps me moving
Still my heart beats so slow..."
Luna muses to Celestia again, "We think the playwright may have a crush. He renders so well the doubts and glories of those wonderful fools who love us. We suspect he knows the thoughts from experience." Closing her eyes tightly, she whispers, "My poor, sweet, brilliant Horizon. Thou knew from the start that my sister and I would keep walking and one day thou would fall behind. It happened sooner rather than later, that's all."
"~You're standing next to me... My mind holds the key... My body is a..." And as the music swells to a climax, Horizon suddenly turns about and begins to furiously kick over the tables, scattering his papers everywhere as he goes quiet while the music builds, adding to the madness of the scene. Red light bathes everything, and Horizon takes apart what's left of his mind piece by piece, taking a lit lantern and lighting the room aflame as he staggers, biting himself and ripping papers in two in a fit of rage.
Derpy is somehow snoozing in the audience again, curled up under a seat.
Horizon finishes the rest of the song in a huddled slump. And as the music comes to a close, Horizon glances back up at nothing. There's no light that frames him or makes him stand out. "~Set my body free... free..." he whispers. And then everything winks out once more.
Spike watches wide-eyed. It's hard to say whether it's because he's transfixed by the pony's pain, or if the energy drink is having some unintended effects.
Derpy wakes up suddenly, dashes out from under Seafoam Splash's seat, and hurries up to the stage, fluttering a little. She shakes herself until her Celestia costume is again in place, and then wanders very slowly.
Dusk listens to Horizon's monologue with quite a bit of feeling, and feeling quite impressed with the story writing and acting all as one. He glances briefly towards the royal box before back to watching the play.
Nightshade cannot watch this scene. She stands up abruptly and leaves as Horizon descends into his final madness. No. No no no.
Blue_Yonder meanwhile watches raptly. Watching history acted out on stage is fascinating.
Lunae is walking with her sister along the ridge near the coastal villages, overlooking the damage from the eve before. "It is a good thing you got the Sun up when you did...I could not have held the oceans back for much longer. Despite all that has happened...it is nice to know we have one another's back in all things."
Red_Velvet watches the emotionally charged scene from offstage with a strangely cold expression, it's not deadpan, it's icy and chilling. but after a moment she shakes herself free of the grip of whatever she was thinking of and regains her composure.
( The demeanor of Derplestia is gentle, a testament to her ability to swiftly change moods. The sound of rolling ball bearing accents their conversation--it's meant to be the smooth waves of the ocean. "Is deep truth to this, Luna," she says, pausing to groom her sister's wing. "I know what is fact, here. Fact is? You are ~very~ deep well of love. And yet?" She shakes out the sand in one of her own wings--or is it grit from under the seats? "Your love all was pooled in one place for these years, more and more and more. All pool-ed! Not balance. And that?" She looks up at the sky, and the virtual sun. "No balance, no safety." )
Skyheart stays backstage as well. he looks to the others when he sees Bardigan tear up the place a few scenes ago. "Um... was destroying the set in the script?" He whispers.
"Nah," murmurs Berry Punch, "but you didn't seriously think the set would survive this play, did you?"
Nightshade is totally beside herself right now as she ambles down the theatre hallway. The look in Bardigan's eyes as he played his part...no, she cannot think of it. No no no. It was like that one time when Father- no no no no no no no no no.
( Lunae continues to walk with Celestia on a clever treadmill like thing just below some trim on the stage, so they could actually walk in place. "Balance in all things is true, yes...but blind is the eye of love, when the scales themselves are tilted so." as they walk. "Still, they were good years dear Sister, and I shall never forget them." )
Derpy gets a little off-sync with the treadmill and trips a bit, having to run to catch up. She seems full of vibrancy and vigor. "I am glad you have those memories to rememborize. Luna? I have question for you. ...Can our ponies trust us again, now?" She seems melancholy. "Because I would like...again....to be trusted." It's some of the most lucid speech Derpy's delivered in...in memory. She must have really rehearsed this bit!
Nightshade has trouble pulling herself together as she walks, with a heavy and shaken heart, to the nearest magi-phone, brusquely pushing aside one of the concierge's assistants as she lifts the handset and dials a number. "Hello? Mother? Yes, I'm fine, but...I would like to talk to Father, please. Now."
Starfire looks ahead and walks, having waited for Celestia to catch up. "Our ponies know the risks, they know the dangers....they also know the benefits and the good things within us." closing her eyes as she walks. "If they choose to trust in us, it is their choice to make, for better or for worse." sighing. "This just happened to be one of the slight downturns."
Red_Velvet stands just out of view, knowing that the next part will involve the chorus ponies again. She is simply waiting for their cue.